Casar Park raceway project on hold

By Tim Robson, 01 Dec 2016News

A new motorsport development on the central coast of NSW is currently in a holding pattern, as environmental studies are taken to comply with a development application.

Casar Park will be located near Wyong, about an hour north of Sydney, and will take up 40 hectares of land, with a multi-use circuit already mapped out in digital form and submitted to the Wyong Council as part of a $200,000 development application.

However, the project is currently on hold as environmental studies on various elements of the 140ha site are completed.

“Unfortunately, we need to observe the site over the course of different seasons to complete the study, so we expect to be able to hand it to Council this time next year,” said co-founder Brad Wilson. “We’re a bit annoyed about the time factor, but that’s part of a DA of this size.”

Mr Wilson said that even if the studies – which include observing a sugar glider habitat and some plant species – showed the facility would have an impact, the size of the site gives them the ability to design around of it.

“We have 140ha to play with, and the facility will only tae up 40 of that,” explained Mr Wilson.

Once the studies are submitted, and if the council approves of the plans, Mr Wilson estimates a build time of less than 12 months. “I anticipate that two years from now, we’ll be cutting the ribbon to open the facility,” he said.

Mr Wilson says that the facility is looking for funding assistance from local, state and federal governments under schemes like the Regional Australia Development Fund, as well as private investors.